Warsaw is the capital city of Poland. It is situated on the Vistula River in East-Central Poland. The city was selected to serve as the capital in 1573, due to its centrality. It also served as the capital of The Commonwealth and the Crown Kingdom of Poland. Warsaw is a very populous city, with a metropolitan population of approximately 3.1 million residents. The Old Town of Warsaw has been recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The city is also famous for its museums and galleries. Warsaw experiences a humid continental climate. The winters in Warsaw are usually cold, snowy and cloudy. The summers are usually sunny, warm and stormy. Spring and autumns in the city are quite unpredictable. There tend to be abrupt weather changes during the spring and autumn seasons. The city is the fourth driest city in Europe. The city is among the driest capitals in Europe, receiving an annual precipitation of 529 milliliters.

Poland is a European country covering 312,685.00 km2 of which 2.70% is water and 304,255.00 km2 is land. This makes it the 69th largest country in the world and about twice the size of Georgia slightly smaller than New Mexico. Its geographic coordinates are 52 00 N, 20 00 E and Warsaw is the capital city.

The name Poland derives from the Polanians, a west Slavic tribe.

Its ISO code is PL.

Geography

Poland has a mean elevation of 173 m above sea level.

It has a martime temperate climate that is cooler and wetter in the north and warmer and drier in the south. Its terrain is mostly flat, with mountains along the southern border.

Population

Poland has a population of 38,523,261 making it the 34th largest in the world. Major population centers are mostly found in the southern and cnetral regions.

Polish is the official language. The majority ethnic group is Polish. The majority of the population is Roman Catholic.

The official language of Poland is Polish. Polish is a West Slavic language under the Lechitic group. It belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. The language is closely related to Czech and Slovak. Excluding all foreign consonants, the Polish alphabet has 32 letters, 23 consonants, and 9 vowels. Polish’s alphabet uses a Latin Script, with some other additional letters from diatric. Polish is the second most spoken Slavic language after Russian. In Poland, approximately 38.5 million people use Polish as their first and native language. The dominant word order used in Polish is subject-verb-object. Just like most Indo-European languages, Polish has its noun categorized into feminine, masculine, and the neuter. The language has quite a large number of loanwords. As Poland interacted with other languages in history, it borrowed words to enrich its vocabulary. There are a number of minority languages spoken in Poland. The minority languages include Czech, Slovak, Kashubian, Belarusian, Lithuanian and Jewish Languages such as Hebrew and Yiddish.

Government

Poland is an independent country. The republic was proclaimed in 1918. Its constitution was last ratified in 1997.

The government of Poland is a representative democracy. Leaders are elected to represent the citizens in parliament. The country is a multi-party state. The political parties often collaborate to form a coalition government. The parliament has two houses, the Senate which is the upper house and Sejm which is the lower house. The two houses are located on the Sejm Complex, Warsaw. The Sejm has 460 elected members whereas the Senate is comprised of 100 elected members. The members of the two houses are elected after every four years. The president is elected after every 5 years. After his election, the president appoints the prime minister who informs the government.

Economy

Factoring in Purchasing Power Parity, Poland's GDP is $1,050,000,000,000.00 (USD) with $27,700.00 (USD) per capita. This makes it the 24th largest economy and its citizens the 65th richest in the world. The currency of Poland is the Zloty (PLN).

Its major export partners are Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic. Its main exports are machinery and transport equipment, and intermediate manufactured goods. Its major import partners are Germany, China, and Russia. Its major imports include machinery and transport equipment, intermediate manufactured goods, and chemicals.

Flag

Poland has two flags that are constitutionally recognized. The first flag consists of a white and red horizontal band while the second flag has a coat of arms in addition to the white and red horizontal bands. The two flags are used on different occasions. The white and red insignia was first used in 1831 while the flag itself was used in a patriotic demonstration in 1916. The flag for the demonstration was proposed by the demonstration’s organizing committee. Flag Day has been celebrated on May 2 since the year 2004. The day was set to educate the citizens on the importance of the national symbols. Flags in this country are used according to customary flag protocol.